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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (10616)	3/17/2005 10:31:48 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 362679

ENVIRONMENT No Refuge from Greed "As one of his last acts in office" Republican President Dwight Eisenhower set aside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, "the only place in the nation where the full spectrum of arctic and sub-arctic ecosystems is protected in an unbroken continuum." The 19 million-acre refuge is a land so pristine that it has been described as "a domain for any restless soul who yearns to discover the startling beauties of creation … where life exists without molestation by man." The name given to the area by the Gwich'in tribe, the indigenous people of the region, "translates to The Sacred Place Where Life Begins." But big oil has been greedily devouring the lands surrounding this virgin wilderness area, turning them into an industrial site riddled with scores of contaminated waste sites and daily pollution spills. And now, after using backdoor tactics disapproved of by the overwhelming majority of Americans, right wingers in the Senate and White House have set the stage for big oil to drill through the very "biological heart of this untamed wilderness," with the hope of drilling in other environmentally sensitive areas. FUZZY NUMBERS…: The United States Treasury will likely never see the drilling revenues presupposed by President Bush's 2006 budget. The budgetary estimates drastically exaggerate the price per leased acre, in some cases expecting "between 66 and 120 times the historic average." Waning industry interest in the area is also a serious factor and one of President Bush's own advisors stated, "If the government gave [the oil companies] the leases for free, they wouldn't take them." …GET EVEN FUZZIER: The administration also is relying on a 50-50 split of the revenues between Alaska and the federal government, but "current law calls for 90 percent to go to Alaska." And it is likely that Alaskans would be ready to go to court with the federal government to protect the 90-10 split. Remarkably, it is not just the revenue but the refuge's oil itself that may never reach American consumers; Alaska's congressional delegates are loudly clamoring to restart oil exportation to foreign countries. 'A DISTRACTION, NOT A SOLUTION': Drilling in the Arctic refuge "serves neither short-term demand … nor long-term national policy." After the decade or longer it will take to begin oil production on the land, the United States Geological Service estimates the amount technically recoverable and economically profitable to recover "represents less than a year's U.S. supply." At the height of production, "the refuge would produce a paltry 1 or 2 percent of Americans' daily consumption." Tire changes and updated fuel efficiency standards could individually save more oil than is likely to be found in the refuge. COMING SOON TO A COASTLINE NEAR YOU: If neither big oil nor the majority of Americans wants drilling in the Arctic refuge, the environmental consequences will be permanently scarring, the activities will endanger the future of an entire people as well as scores of wildlife species, and there is no way to restrict it to just one sliver of the land, why is the right wing pushing so hard for something that will do little to nothing to cure our nation's energy dependence? Precedent. In a closed door meeting with fellow conservatives, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) spoke about the "symbolism involved in opening up the refuge to drilling" as well as the precedent the move will set. DeLay's comments reveal that drilling in ANWR is "a domino game that will lead to drilling in the Rocky Mountains, off the California coast and in the Gulf of Mexico." Watch out when the moratorium on eastern Gulf drilling expires in 2007. americanprogressaction.org

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (10616)	3/17/2005 10:32:43 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362679

I was jesting so I can't answer your question. Yes, oil would need to be in a planet that had hydrocarbon "thingies" of some kind millions of years ago.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (10616)	3/17/2005 10:38:41 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362679

Frozen sea gives hope of finding life on Mars timesonline.co.uk By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent THE strongest evidence yet that life could exist on Mars has been discovered by scientists, in the form of a sea of ice near the planet’s equator. The ice sheet detected by the European Mars Express spacecraft appears to have bubbled up from a subterranean aquatic layer, which researchers believe may harbour the right conditions for primitive microbes to have evolved. As the frozen sea is certainly of geologically recent origin, the find makes it more probable than ever that any life that might once have emerged on the Red Planet could still survive there. Any such lifeforms would be microscopic creatures, similar to bacteria. They would have been brought to the surface by the geyser-like spring that burst through fissures in the rock to form the ice sea in the Elysium region, and could be preserved there. The findings, which are published today in the journal Nature, suggest that Elysium is the best place on Mars where scientists might look for evidence for life, and mark it out as an early candidate site for the next landings planned by the European Space Agency and Nasa. John Murray, of the Open University, one of the leaders of the high-resolution stereo camera team that made the discovery, said he had been happy to believe that traces of past life might have been found in the rocks on Mars, although he would not have imagined finding life there. “But it’s a possibility now,” he added. “If there are organisms, we will be looking at the organisms themselves, rather than fossils. Europe is sending the ExoMars lander in 2011 and Nasa the Mars Science Laboratory at about the same time. I would say Elysium is by far the most likely place for finding life on Mars, and that’s where we should be going. “I would never have thought it possible before that life could exist today, and now I believe it is very possible.” The frozen sea measures about 560 miles (900km) by 500 miles, and was formed approximately five million years ago. Water from a liquid layer between four and six miles beneath the surface is thought to have erupted through a fault in the rock 125 miles away and spilled on to the planet’s surface. The high pressure of the water prevented it from freezing instantly, but allowed it to flow over this large area and form the sea before it became ice. “It’s like opening a bottle of champagne,” Professor Murray said. “The water is under enormous pressure, with millions of tonnes of rock on top. It should freeze when it comes out, but it doesn’t have time to freeze immediately because of the high pressure, so much of it, the vast majority, remains as liquid that settles flat and freezes slowly.” Many important prerequisites for life — liquid water, carbon and a heat source from volcanic activity — are known to have existed on Mars either now or in the past. Professor Murray said that the sea’s relatively young age also made it much more likely that any organisms that did evolve might survive. If the Elysium region does harbour life, it could explain high levels of methane detected there by another Mars Express instrument, the planetary Fourier spectrometer. Methane can be generated either by living things or by volcanic activity. ========== After all, it starts looking more and more like life isn't that unusual in the world. It may not look like us but then again neither do Republicans.